Tipsheet

Lawmakers Grappling With Potential Iran Airstrikes

Jeff Charles
Jeff Charles  |  February 26, 2026 1:15 PM

Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed top congressional leaders on the situation with Iran this week as President Donald Trump considers military action against the regime over its nuclear program and brutal treatment of protesters.

Rubio held a classified session with the bipartisan "Gang of Eight” at the White House on Tuesday, just hours before President Trump gave his State of the Union address. This comes as the White House has ordered a major military buildup in the Persian Gulf.

The briefing centered on Iran’s efforts to rebuild its nuclear program as Washington and Tehran seek to hammer out an agreement. Officials from both nations are set to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to resume negotiations.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers are debating the course the U.S. should take against the Iranian regime. Some expressed fears that the U.S. could find itself embroiled in another foreign military conflict without a clear justification or congressional approval.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) supported airstrikes on Iran during an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. He had recently met with Trump and said he urged him to "support the protesters and arm the protesters."

“What I’ve urged the president is, number one, support the protesters and arm the protesters. Let the people of Iran — give them the ability to overthrow their government. And number two, I think there is a very real possibility we will see, potentially in a matter of days, limited strikes,” Cruz told CNBC host Joe Kernen in an interview in the Russell Rotunda.

Cruz, however, ruled out the possibility of putting U.S. troops on the ground to help antigovernment protesters oust Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“What we’re not going to see is boots on the ground. We’re not going to see a ground presence of American troops there, but I think there’s a real possibility of targeted strikes that are designed to support the Iranian people who are protesting,” he said.

Cruz said he advised Trump that the Iranian regime is on the brink of collapse.

“I said, ‘Listen, the regime has never been weaker. They are teetering,’” he recounted.

“We are at a moment … where in the next six months we could realistically see the regimes in Iran, Venezuela and Cuba all fall, and we could see them replaced with governments that want to be friendly with America,” he said.

“If that happened, that would be the biggest geopolitical shift since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” he added.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) recently chided the United Kingdom after it announced that it would not allow the U.S. to use its bases for strikes on Iran. "Sitting this one out puts you on the wrong side of history and is yet another example of how much our alliances throughout Europe have degraded," he wrote in a post on X.

The day before the briefing, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “Look, this is serious, and the administration has to make its case to the American people,” according to the Washington Examiner.

On the same day, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said this moment is “an extraordinary and serious time” and that “it’s incumbent on the president to make the case what our country’s goals are and what our countered interest are and how we’re going to protect American interests in the region.”

In the House, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) and Republican Thomas Massie (KY-04) are leading a bipartisan effort to force a war powers vote before any strike on Iran.

Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman (OH-01) signaled that he is leaning against voting in favor of the war powers resolution. He told Jewish Insider that U.S. allies “may very well need to take defensive action, targeting military assets in Iran.”

When asked about the potential for military action against the Islamic Republic, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said, “I hear it across Arkansas, and I think most Americans appreciate that Iran to this day chants 'death to America.' And for 47 years, as you said—since they took our diplomats and their families hostage in 1979—they've been waging a low-grade war against the United States."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) indicated he might be open to Trump’s approach. “They’re giving a lot of thought to the situation,” he said. “And I appreciate where they’re coming from.”

The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln carrier strike force is already in the region, The National reported. The U.S.S. Gerald Ford is headed to the Persian Gulf, along with dozens of additional aircraft and air defense systems. This is the largest show of force in the area in years. President Trump has set a deadline for Tehran to make progress in the negotiations.